Introduction

-- , . Fifteen Volumes in an Oak Bookcase. Price One Guinea. " Marvels of clear type and general neatness." Daily Telegraph. MORLEY'S UNIVERSAL LIBRARY. In Monthly Volumes, ONE SHILLING Each. READY ON THE 2$th Of EACH MONTH. LMANUAL OF FRET CUTTING AND WOOD CARVING MAJOR-GEN. SIR THOMAS SEATON, K.C.B. WITH DIAGRAMS. LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL NEW YORK: 9, LAFAYETTE PLACE Price 55. , cloth gilt. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. FROM CADET TO COLONEL: A Record of a Life of Active Service. By MAJOR-GENERAL SIR THOMAS SEATON, K.C.B. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE Tools for a Beginner Bench, Turkey-Stone, and Slip List ol Tools ior more advanced Carver To level the Stone To sharpen Tools To sharpen Gouges Leather for sharpening Tools Glue, to prepare Diaper Carving Hint regarding V-tools . i CHAPTER II. Fret-cutting and Perforated Carving Tools required Bow-saw and Horse Saw-Gate Saws Wooden Saw-frame and Spring Vice Fret-cutting Table, how to make Pattern How to cut it Pre- cautions to be observed SawWorkjumping Cutting across Grain 13 CHAPTER III. Fret Cutting Difficult Places Sawing Tables Fine Saws Wander ofif Work Saw to be turned to Front for large Work Sand-paper Stick for Brown Stain Varnishes French Polishing Glue-pot 24 CHAPTER IV. Sundry Maxims Red Ink best for Copying Patterns Some Patterns recommended . . . . - 35 CHAPTER V. To Copy Patterns (Designs) on Tracing-paper To Enlarge or Reduce Designs, Method Carver's Screw and Bridge To Carve a Fret- Cut Bracket Tools for rounding Ivy Branches . . -44 CHAPTER VI. Maccaroni Tool Its Use To Cut against the Grain To Carve with the Leli Hand How Carving the Bracket (continued) Zig-zag Ornamental Pattern Sand-paper lor smoothing Leaves not to be viii CONTENTS. PICK used Swiss Carvers use it Carving on both sides Support to Shelf How to avoid Fracture Back Carving Finishing the T Bracket Beading round the part Putting on Hinges Finishing the Shelf Mould Ivy round Shelf Tool for making it S3 CHAPTER VII. Amateur should prepare his own Wood Saws required How to use them Aid to the Saw Bench Saddle How to make it Mitre Box To sharpen Saws Saw Clip The Plane Jack Plane To sharpen Plane Iron To hold the Plane To Plane True- Smoothing Plane To Grind Plane Iron Planing across Grain sometimes advisable . . . . . . 71 CHAPTER VIII. Natives of India rarely at a loss for expedients Anecdote Gouges, and what can be done with them An ornamental Leaf to Carve in the solid Instructions in Grounding Precautions to be observed To Bost Precautions when Bosting Finishing the Leaf The Parts to be sketched on bosted Mass Various Instructions | Rounding off bottom of Leaf Tools to be used in rounding off Leaf, etc. Gouges to be levelled from the inside Rule for Bevel- An Ornament for Carving Masses of Carving are built up, not hewn out of Solid Block Black Stain Brown Stain . . 86 CHAPTER IX. Two Maxims repeated Cut clean, use Tools with left hand Method of using Tools with left Hand Grounding Bent Chisels Boster for smoothing Ground Notch in a Leaf, to nit To raise Beads or Pearls Punches Their Use in finishing Pearls Other Uses The Ribbon round the Stick Leg of Square Music Stool Method ...... of transferring Design to Carved Surface Precautions on Carving the Stool Illustration of Cross Pieces Acanthus Leaf Illustration How to Carve it . 106 CHAPTER X. The Turkey Slip How to manage Heads Proportions How to Carve Scale of Parts Instruction for Carving Heads Bosting Finishing Sunk Carving Detailed Method of Carving Wax ........ Varnish Designs for Lid, Front, and Sides of Box How to Carve it Dimensions of Box Carver's Chaps for holding small articles to be Carved 131 A MANUAL FIJET CUTTING /ND WOOD C/RVING. CHAPTER I. AM writing for boys ; for those especially who, like myself, have a taste for mechanics, and prefer turning their leisure hours to something useful, than idle about with hands in " their pockets, whining, I've got nothing to do." I have no respect for lads who complain that they have nothing to do ; such fellows, nine cases out of ten, turn out worthless members of society, or get into all kinds of mischief, and become right-down scamps. But it may, and I daresay it does sometimes, happen that a sharp, intelligent, and willing lad, who could turn his hand to anything, has not the means for exercising his taste for mechanics. Then why not ask father or mother for a few shillings to buy some tools ? I am sure any parent of moderate means would be delighted to see his sons take to any useful occupation that would keep them from idleness and mischief. My father used to say that, in one respect, the Jews of a A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING old were patterns for all fathers, inasmuch as they caused their sons to be instructed in some handicraft, so that in time of need they might have something to fall back upon, and might not " become poor and steal." St. Paul, you remember, though brought up under Gamaliel, one of the first doctors of the law, learnt also the art of tent-making, and, during one of his journeys preaching the gospel, supported himself by working at it. Acting up to his opinion, my father allowed me to buy a handsome allowance rf carpenter's tools, and all acces- sories, bench, etc., and took care to let me have instruction also; so that, at the age of sixteen, before I entered the army, I was a capital carpenter, and on many occasions during my career in the army in India did my knowledge of carpentry turn to good account. But as an occupation for boys generally, carpentry has several drawbacks. The first is the great expense of tools and bench, etc. j then the space required. It is not an employment that can be carried into the drawing-room, and during the winter holidays boys are or should be out all day skating, or taking some healthful, active exercise, leaving only the long evenings ; so, except on rainy, dull days, they cannot practise their carpentry unless, like myself, they have the use of a good room in an out office. Now, these drawbacks do not apply to wood carving. With very few simple tools most beautiful work can be executed, and a very great deal can be done in the drawingroom, on a working board fixed by cramps to any firm table. Now, let us see, first of all, what tools are required. Here is an ample list for a beginner : Three chisels eighth, quarter, half-inch j three flat gouges, ditto ; three deeper gouges, ditto; three half-round, ditto j one V, or AND WOOD CARVING. 3 parting tool ; one skew, or corner chisel ; one mallet ; two cramps for fastening the work to the table ; one oilstone ; one slip ; one brace and bit for boring holes ; two fine gimlets ; two punches (one star, the other checquer) j one tracing point ; one small glue-pot ; a few small files, and a hammer. Now, all these may be purchased for about twenty-six shillings, and if father won't stand that, then some may be A dispensed with. heavy bit of wood of convenient length, with one end fitted to the hand, will supply the place of mallet ; then the larger of the second and third lot of gouges may be dispensed with, and the tools may be bought two or three at a time, as the pocket-money or "tips" come in. Now, there is one thing in respect to the purchase of tools about which I must caution you. Small, short, neatly-turned boxwood handles must be avoided ; they are nearly useless. Get good-sized beech or ash handles, quite five inches long ; and if the steel is four or four and a half inches long, you will have a really serviceable tool, that will do much finer and better work, and quicker than the best " " ladies' tool ever made, because the large handle gives a good firm hold. The tools, handled and ground, will cost about pd. each ; cramps, 25. to 25. 6d. Glue-pots according to size ; you will require quite a small one. Punches are 6d. each; gimlets, 3d.; brace and bit, 25. 6d. Oil-stones are sold by weight, Turkey-stone being the dearest, and also by far the best. Don't be persuaded to buy an Arkansas stone, they are hard and worthless j they don't " " bite sufficiently, and are fit only for slips for very fine, delicate tools. Buy a working bench by all means, if you can, it will so greatly facilitate your work. It should be at least A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING forty inches long by twenty-four wide, with a bench-vice at one end, and a tray on the further side to hold the tools. The thickness of the bench should be at least two inches, and as firm and solid as can be made. It should be made W/, high enough for you to stand up to your work, and have holes bored through at convenient distances in three rows to insert the holdfast, of which I give a sketch, or the carver's screw. This last is by far the bestj it is all below the table, as I will explain further on, and there is nothing in the way of the carver. The holdfast is put into one of the holes, the work to be held is put under the pad, and the screw is turned until the work is firmly fixed. This holdast is used when the wood to be carved is too thin for the carver's screw to be inserted into it, and when it is not AND WOOD CARVING. 5 desirable to glue it down on another board. In using this holdfast, I always put a piece of some soft wood between the pad and the wood I am carving, so as to prevent the teeth of the pad from marking it. You can understand that a deep scratch might interfere sadly with the delicate part of some leaf. The French carvers make use of a holdfast with a fixed arm, instead of a moveable arm and screw , and it has one advantage, it is lower than the screw holdfast ; the carver's arm passes more easily over it. The screw holdfast can be used in the same way by simply taking out the screw. Should this little work be read by any amateur who has made a commencement in carving, who has the means, and wishes to buy a small set of tools, but does not quite know what to purchase, I recommend the following list of tools. He will find this an ample list, and with these tools he will be able to carve anything that is not too large : Gouges, very flat . . 8 .... flat 8 ... i flat 8 ... i flat 8 ... i round 8 .8 hollow . . ... Firmer chisels 6 Bent chisels . . . .'8 .... gouges 8 Skew chisels . q V tools a Graining gouges . . 3 Holdfast I Corner screw . . . I Oil-stone I Slips ...... a Mallet I ..... Pricker. I Pair of compasses . . i Small glue-pot : . I Mr. G. Buck will supply a very nice strong bench for 285. The gouges and chisels of each set to commence from the smallest size. The whole may be purchased for about 4. My bench is a compound of carver's and joiner's bench, 6 A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING and I strongly recommend it to all amateurs who can afford to have one made ; for after having carved your work you can joiner it, and you can plane and prepare your own wood, and be thus independent of the carpenter, which is most desirable. My bench is of the following dimensions : length, 4ft. 5 in. j breadth, 2 ft. i in. ; height, 3 ft. \ in. The wood is oak three inches thick, and there are three rows of holes for the holdfast. There are only two holes in each row; the centre of the holes of first row three inches and a half from edge, and fourteen inches from head of bench. There is the usual bench stop, or dog, and the bench vice is of the French pattern, which I consider vastly superior to the English. But we must get on. The first thing to do is to learn to sharpen your tools. You will get them ready ground from the tool-maker's ; and, by the by, if you do not know where to get your tools, I recommend G. Buck, Tottenham Court Road, London, or Mosley & Simpson, King Street, Covent Garden ; where also you will get all kinds of patterns, and prepared woods for diaper carving, fret cutting and carving, or block carving. The oil-stone must be set in a block of wood, with cover, and you must first of all see that it is quite smooth and level, with no hollows or rough places in it. If it should not be quite smooth or have hollows in it, grind it down. Get a bit of stone flagstone or a bit of sandstone of any hard kind about three inches square, or about the size of half an orange. If it has one flat side, all the better ; if not, rub it on the kitchen stone sink, or on any stone, until you get a flat surface. Then on your oil- stone put a little coarse emery j wet it well. Then take your flat bit of stone and rub it round and round, like a AND WOOD CARVING. 7 painter grinding colours, keeping it constantly wet. Go all over the oil-stone regularly j it will soon be ground flat ; then Now finish with a little fine emery. put a little oil on the stone; take one of your chisels, the handle in your right hand, put it on the stone, and holding it at the angle at which it has been ground, place the fingers of the left hand on the face, and with a moderate pressure rub it steadily backwards, looking at it frequently to see if you do not get it down too much, and make what is called a wire edge. Turn the chisel over and rub it on the other side both sides j of a firmer chisel must be ground, and sharpened equally on both sides. "When the edge has been got down fine enough, raise the hand slightly, and give the edge on both sides a semi-circular sweep forwards once or twice. This takes off the wire edge ; but if it should not, then draw the edge of the tool througn the edge of a piece of wood, or stand it up on the table and give it a slight bend backwards and for- wards. This will take it off, and the tool can then get one or two more rubs with the semi-circular sweep before my described, and it will be finished. But I must caution readers not to rub too hard with the forward semi-circular sweep, or raise the hand too much, as this would make a little shoulder in the bevel, which would have to be rubbed down. Sharpen your gouges in the same way, only you must continue turning your hand as you rub to and fro, so that each part of the edge of the gouge may have its share of the stone. I sharpen my gouges in a different manner from most people. I hold the gouge across the stone, giving it a rocking motion by turns of the wrist, as I push it up and down the stone. To explain : Bring the gouge close to you, holding it across your body ; put the further corner of gougft 8 A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING down on the stone, push from you, and at the same time turn your wrist, so that the upper or nearest corner comes down on the stone ; drawing it back reverse the motion, and in this way every part of the edge of the gouge will be ground by the stone. I have found this by far the best plan, the edge does not get rubbed away more in one place than another. Then, as you cannot sharpen the face, which is hollow, on the oilstone, you take the slip between the thumb and finger of your right hand, and holding the gouge firmly in the left, you apply the slip. Slips are pieces of Turkey or other stone about four inches long and one and a-quarter wide. They are of various thicknesses, generally a quarter of an inch or more, bevelling off to half that thickness at the other edge. Each edge is rounded off so as to fit the bottom of the gouges, which cannot, of course, be sharpened on the inside with a flat stone. The safer method of using the slip is to lay the back of the gouge at an inch and a-half from the edge on the edge of the table j the edge of the tool must be slightly raised, and the slip can then be applied with perfect safety and with great effect. If the tool is held upright in one hand, and the slip applied with the other, the stone is apt to glide off the tool, if it is a rather flat one, and a cut finger is frequently the result. V The tool is the most difficult of all tools to sharpen. It requires great care and constant vigilance to guard against rubbing it down more on one side than the other, and to rub each bevel evenly, neither too much towards the point or to the upper part of it. Rubbed down too much towards the point, it generally makes a notch just above the point. One V end of a slip should be ground down to a sharp edge, so as to sharpen the tool from the inside also. You must get from the saddler a bit of hard, smooth AND WOOD CARVING. g leather, like what is used for stirrups ; it must be one and a half inches wide, and about eight inches long. Glue this on to a board, and make some kind of case for it ; rub on it as a foundation some emery paste, procurable at a cutler's. Now draw your tools over this, and they will be sharp as razors. When your strop requires freshening, put on a few drops of sweet-oil, rub in with your fingers, and dust it with finely powdered emery. The best plan for doing this is to keep your emery in a wooden tooth-powder box, in the lid of which a small hole must be bored. With this you can dust on the emery nicely, and it keeps it well. Some people recommend a piece of soft buff leather, but this, I think, is a mistake, and I know it does not sharpen nearly so well as a piece of hard leather that will not yield to the tool 3 for you can quite understand that if the leather is soft and yields, it will curl up behind as the tool passes on and round off the edge, instead of leaving it a true bevel. I cannot tell the price of a carver's bench, but I know that a carpenter's bench, with vice and stop or dog, as it is sometimes called, complete, costs from twenty -five to twenty- eight or thirty shillings ; and a carver's bench, with vice and tray complete, would not cost more. I have a smaller bench, which would suit the greater number of you, my young friends, admirably ; it is thirty-two inches long, eighteen inches wide, one and a half inch thick j it is thirty inches high, has a small drawer in the centre, and four holes on the top for the holdfast clear of the drawer. It can be carried into the drawing or sitting-room, and if you put under it a newspaper or two to catch the chips, you may carve away without fear of sour looks from Mary the housemaid, who, seeing the care you take to avoid giving her trouble, will say, " Well, Master John is a thoughtful young gentleman." io A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING Now, having told you as much as it is necessary for you to know at present about your implements, we will begin a little diaper carving, as it is called. First, you must get a piece of nice dry, well-seasoned wood, oak or walnut, a quarter of an inch thick. Suppose it to be meant for a cover for a book, have the edges bevelled off, the wood finely smoothed and French polished (I will tell you about French polish by and by) ; then take your glue-pot, break a few pieces of glue about the size of a shilling, put them into the glue-pot, cover them with water, and half fill with water the outer vessel, and put it on to boil. As soon as the glue is melted, put a little on the four corners of your piece of wood underneath, and a patch on the middle; then all over the wood below put a piece of stout but fine white paper, and press it down on the glue. Now put corresponding patches of glue outside the paper, and then press the whole down on your working board. As soon as it is dry, you will be ready to commence operations. Fix upon some simple pattern, and trace it over on some rough tracing-paper ; then pin it, or better paste it, on to Now the bevel, so as to fix it firmly. take the tracing-point and go over the whole pattern carefully, so as to leave a fine line everywhere. Remove the pattern, screw the board down on to the table with your cramps, and see that it is V quite firm. Take the or parting tool, hold it in your right hand at a proper cutting angle, put your left wrist on the wood to be operated on, pass your hand over the steel, the thumb underneath, and the tips of the fingers resting on the work. This will give you perfect command of the tool, will prevent its slipping forward, enable you to guide it round the curves, and the thumb being under the tool, you AND WOOD CARVING. ir can grasp it at any moment with the whole hand Take out no more wood than just sufficient to mark the pattern well. Then take the star punch, and hitting short, sharp strokes with the hammer, begin and punch down the wood as marked in the annexed illustration. Whilst punching the wood, you must slightly turn the punch round after each stroke of the hammer, so as not to give the grounding a liney appearance ; and one more caution, if you see that the punch raises little chips of wood, try the other way of the grain. If you carry on your punching in the drawing or sittingroom, use the chunk of wood I mentioned, so as not to make much noise. It would be far better if you have paper enough to turn it over the bevel, and paste it underneath before glueing the work on to the board. When the work 12 A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING is finished, take a common table-knife, pass it between the piece of work and the board, and the paper will split in half easily, and the work become detatched. Scrape off the paper, and glue. The best glue is clear and transparent, without spots or streaks. The effect of this diaper carving is very good, the punching down the wood throws the pattern up in relief, requires but a little care, and is easily done. You should practise a V little with the tool on a spare bit of wood before trying it on your book-cover. The faults to be guarded against are cutting too deep, going off the line, and not sweeping V smoothly round the curves. The tool is ground on the outside with long bevels, and where these bevels meet, below the point of the V, a sharp edge is produced. This edge should be slightly rounded off ; the tool will then work more easily round a curve. You can, if you please, mark the curves by a gouge, holding it quite upright, and pressing it down with the hand. Many do diaper carving in this way V without the tool. AND WOOD CARVING. 13 CHAPTER II. iiHE former chapter concluded with a short descrip- tion of diaper carving, the effect of which is greater than can be imagined. It must be tried and ; it has also this great advantage it can be done with great rapidity, giving great results with little trouble. The next step is fret cutting and perforated carving. Fret cutting may be described as the art of sawing out the groundwork of a pattern. The fronts of cottage or upright pianos are usually fret cut, and sometimes the patterns are so beautiful that they look like lacework turned into wood. When a pretty pattern is nicely and cleanly cut, the effect is always pleasing, but when the carver takes it in hand, rounds off the stalks, hollows out and veins the leaves, cuts the flowers into shape, and gives a natural undulation to the whole, the effect is magical, and seems to endow the wood with life. There is this advantage in fret cutting and perforated carving, that it is an employment suitable for the ladies of a family, andean be carried into the drawing-room. Numbers of ladies practise this beautiful art, and are really most skilful my at it. One lady of acquaintance is carving a set of chairs for her dining-room ; and a lady of my own family, at her first trial, fret cut a bracket of a very complicated pattern 14 A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING and executed it as well as if she had practised the art for years. The tools required for fret cutting are very few and very simple a steel bow saw, or wooden frame saw, costing from 6s. to i2s. ; a few saw blades, 6d. per dozen; a brace and bit for boring holes, 2s. 6d. ; a couple of fine gimlets, 4d. each ; two smooth files, one flat, one half round ; a cramp and holdfast, 35. 6d., for screwing the working board, or horse, to the table ; a sheet or two of glass cloth ; and a small glue-pot. This working board, or horse, is a board about in. thick, 18 in. to 20 in. long, and 15 in. to 16 in. * wide. In this board two deep notches are cut, one on each side, and at opposite corners. One notch is 4 in. deep and 2^ in. wide ; the other 2^ in. deep and i in. wide. Each notch to be used according as the pattern is fine or large. I ~ give an illustration. Now, get a nice, dry, well-seasoned bit of walnut wood, in. thick when planed and smoothed, and your pattern having been taken off on tough tracing paper, stick it on the wood with well made paste. As soon as it is dry, take your brace and bit, or your gimlets, and bore holes at convenient spots on the wood to be cut away. I will show further on how this should be done. The hole, thus bored, is called the saw gate. The horse must now be screwed to the right hand corner of the table, the edge of the V board parallel to the edge of the table, and the notch or projecting beyond the table towards the operator, the V point of the an inch from the edge of the table to avoid accidents. Take a low seat, so that your shoulders may be about on a level with the horse, unscrew the holder at the end of the bow, release the end of the saw, pass it from below through the saw gate, make it fast, screw up the saw (the teeth should point downwards towards the handle) AND WOOD CARVING. 15 Now put the hole, or saw gate, over the V, with the bow of the saw frame turned to the right ; commence sawing, pulling the saw downwards with steady, regular strokes, then with the left hand placed firmly on the pattern, push it towards the saw (turning and guiding as it may be necessary) with a slight but steady, even pressure. Don't hurry, go slowly at first, until you get the knack. I should advise the beginner to use No. 6 saws. I use one of a much coarser size, and can cut very delicate work with the greatest precision, and double the rapidity to be obtained with a finer saw. I com- menced by using Nos. 4 and 5 saws, but I will never again use a fine saw when I can possibly use a coarser one, the gain in precision and rapidity is so great. Then the finer saws, being thinner, are apt to wander off the line, unless kept well stretched and most carefully worked. Of course, for inlaying and very fine small work, fine saws must be used. To most people this method of sawing out a pattern is inconvenient, to many it is intolerable, to all it is tedious. To those who find it intolerable or even inconvenient, if they do not possess a carver's bench with screw, in which the work can be held upright, and have not the means of procuring a sawing table, I would recommend the wooden frame saw and spring vice ; by the latter, the work can be fixed upright to any table that is firm enough. Then seated on a common chair, and the pattern facing him, the operator can saw away at perfect ease. These saw frames and spring vices can be procured at Mosely & Simpson's, King Street, Covent Garden. But both these methods of fret cutting and sawing are tedious in the extreme even in the most skilful and practised hands, and are very far from being precise. The saw, especially in the hands of a beginner, cannot always be kept mathemati- 16 A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING cally upright or horizontal ; the consequence is, that too much wood is very frequently cut away from the under side, or else not enough. This gives the work an uneven, lop- sided appearance, and utterly spoils the effect in some deli- cate piece of work, where a mere shave alters the proportion and destroys the symmetry of the curves. For these reasons, I would strongly recommend to all who desire to excel in this most beautiful and absorbing art, to make a fret cutting table, if they cannot afford to purchase one of the various patented metal fret cutting tables now coming into use. The expense of making a table is very trifling, and as it will afford much amusement and greatly interest my young readers, I will describe and explain every part, so that they make it at home, or get their friend, the village carpenter, to make it out of any odds or ends he may have at hand. On my the following page is a general view of table. A, the top of the table ; it measures 5 ft. by 4 i ft. in. N.B. 4 ft., or 3 ft. 6 in., would form a convenient table. B, B, B, B,the four legs morticed into a thick piece below, H, projecting 4 in. beyond the legs ; in this projecting part the treadle j works. The top of the table should be 2 ft. 6 in from the ground; c, c, c, c, four upright pieces, i in. square ; to support the cross-bar they are let into the top of the table, and then screwed on to the bar M. D, the cross bar, if in. by i in. ; top of cross bar should be i ft. 4 in. from top of table ; E upper saw bar. F, lower ditto, both of the same size as cross bar; G, slides going through table top, and connecting upper and lower saw bars, measuring i-J- in. by 8 of an in., firmly mor- ticed into upper saw bar.* * These slides should fit very accurately in the morticed holes, but at the same time should slide up and down with perfect ease. AND WOOD CARVING. M, the lower pieces described at B. i, bar connecting the legs. j, treadle bar, with treadle and two arms; the treadle bar if in. square, the treadle and arms i in. thick, pin. long. K, the clamps for holding the saws, of which I give oo i3 A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING wrap a bit of old kid glove round the end of the india rubber ; bend the cane loop over it, the cane to go an inch down each side, then with some strong fine string, well rubbed with cob- bler's wax, bind the loop on as tight as you can. If the in- side of the cane has a notch or two cut in it, the loop will never draw. There is one disadvantage in these india rubber springs, that they are constantly snapping where the loop is A put on. far better plan is to make the upright higher, and to fasten on to the cross bar a bow made of good straight grained, well-seasoned ash, or of lance-wood. This never gets out of order, and if a suitable piece of ash cannot be had, the bow can be made out of thin battens of ash laid one over the other, like the plates in a carriage spring. I have given up the springs. The arms of the treadle should each have an iron eye, screwed in exactly under the lower saw bar, and correspond- ing eyes should be screwed into the lower saw bar. Some stout twine passed from the arms to the bar connect the two, and enable you to set the saw in motion. The hole for the treadle bar in n should not go right through, only to about three-fourths of the thickness of H. When the treadle bar is in its place, a hole is bored through the remaining thickness into the treadle bar and a good long screw inserted ; this keeps the legs together, and prevents the accident of the treadle slipping out when moving the table about from place to place. The table of which I have here given the description is unusually long, and one very much shorter will be better for young people. Three feet six inches to four feet is a very nice size, and can be moved about easily. The top of the table should be of oak, beech, elm, or ash. The work slides round much more smoothly on hard wood ; on deal it is apt AND WOOD CARVING. 19 to stick, end the soft deal gets easily indented, and becomes rough. The size of work that can be turned out by a table is measured by the distance from the saw to the slides ; there- fore the slides should be as near the uprights that support the cross bar, and as far from the saw as possible. The clamps for the saws are put through the exact centre of the saw bars, and to prevent them from turning or shifting as the work is turned against the saw, a small iron plate i in. wide, made of a bit of thick iron hoop, is let into the lower edge of the upper saw bar, and into the upper edge of the A lower saw bar ; and through these the clamps pass. brass collar passes over the screw, and lies on the bar for the nut to work upon. The clamps should move quite freely up and down in the holes, so that they may be easily screwed up or let out. It only remains to say that the springs may be fastened to cross bar and upper saw bar by stout twine passed through the cane loops. The saws should be six inches long. The top of an old kitchen dresser, or any bit of old well-seasoned hard wood, will do for the top of the table j if joined down the centre it will not signify, provided it is joined in a close, workman- like manner. The legs may be of deal j the cross bar, slides, saw bars, and treadle must be of oak or ash j but outsides, or odds and ends of oak or ash, are cheap enough. The clamps for holding the saws are the most expensive part of the whole, A but they will not cost much. patent metal fret-cutting table will cost from four or five to ten guineas, and they do not cut a bit better than the table I have described. More- over, they have this disadvantage they cannot be readily A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING moved from room to room on account of their great weight. With this table I have described, wood an inch thick can be cut. I have done it frequently with a coarse saw, and then any carpenter, or any youth with a few tools and a No. 1. little knowledge ot carpentry, can make this able. I have even seen a. common small deal dressing-table converted into a fret -cutting table on this plan, and myself helped to con- vert it. Now we will suppose ilie saw and horse to have been AND WOOD CARVING. ax purchased, or the table made, the pattern pasted on a nice piece of wood. Let us suppose the subjoined to be the pattern. This is quite a simple pattern that I have drawn expressly for this first attempt ; the lines in great proportion are Now straight, and the curves are easy. take your brace and bit, bore a hole in the centre compartment of the pattern where I have drawn one ; loose the end of the saw, put it through the saw gate, make fast, and screw it up moderately tight until the saw rings clear on being touched. Saw from the hole down towards the corner next you, as marked by the fine dotted line, quite cutting the line of the pattern. Return to the saw-gate, continuing the motion of the saw whilst you move the pattern back. Now saw down the other side quite into the corner, and this will take out the little piece, turn the pattern quite round, and saw down the right side, quite into the corner, cutting the line all the way along. When you get to the corner, draw the pattern back to the little cross, then cut across the corner in the direction of the dotted line, continue sawing down to corner opposite the saw-gate, draw back to the f, saw across in direction of dotted line, continue in this way until you have cut the whole piece Now out. go back, and cut out the little bits left in the corners. The reason for this mode of sawing is obvious; if you try to turn in the corners you will boggle about it, perhaps cut into the pattern, and so mar the effect, perhaps break the saw ; and you must be cautious at all times in drawing a pattern back from the saw to continue the motion of the saw, for when the wood is quite dry this clears the cut from sawdust. But should the wood from any csuse be not quite dry, don't use force to draw the pattern back, as you will inevitably break the saw ; rather release the saw at both ends, and draw it out. When using the fret-cutting A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING table, you must pay great attention to keeping your work directly in front of you j don't press the saw out of the per- pendicular to right or left, and don't try and saw too fast ; if you do, the work will jump, and you will not cut true. When working, always have the end of a tallow candle at your hand wrapped round with paper, and touch the saw with it now and then, especially when turning in a small confined space marked f in pattern W.2. No. 2, the saw will cut it quite clean and easilyj but if the wood is thin, and you are cutting across the grain, you must take great care not to break off the part that is being sawed. To avoid this catastrophe, saw the extremities first. Look once more at the pattern. I have drawn an arrow to show which way the grain runs. Now you can readily understand that, if you cut out the part at f first of all, then the part at oo, and finish off with the outside , the chances will be ten to one that you will break the work at the narrow neck. So first of all cut the outside right round to the point next the t- I have marked the course with a dotted line, cross over, and cut round the curve to tne point. Then go to the upper point at oo, and cut down to the inner angle ; draw back, and then from above cut the piece out. In fine, don't rut away in any case the support of your flower or leaf until the last, and ob- No. 3. serving this precaution you will seldom have a fracture. One more example : here, No. 3, is a leaf from the lower part of a bracket; the grain runs in direction of the arrow. To AND WOOD CARVING. 83 cut the little projecting knob begin at t cut round into the corner, draw back to o, cut round again into the corner, clearing part of the neck ; go back to f, and cut into the upper corner. Pursue this system, and, as I said before, you will rarely have a fracture. Some people recommend commencing with the outside . carefully avoid this j cut the whole interior first, and finish with the outside. You can easily suppose that such little projecting points and knobs, as shown in this last illustration, will catch in your dress, and get broken off. I must give my another illustration in next chapter of one or two other precautions to be taken and modes adopted in sawing out narrow and difficult places. It will be as well to provide yourself with a bradawl, ground to a sharp point to lift out the pieces as they are cut by the saw, otherwise they may hinder the motion of the saw, and, by getting into the saw- hole in the table, prevent the work from sliding round. A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING CHAPTER III. the end of my last chapter I said I would give another illustration of one or two precautions to be taken and modes to be adopted in sawing out narrow and difficult places ; but let me urge you to saw out the whole of the interior of your pattern first, and reserve the outside to the last. I speak from absolute ex- perience. I commenced by sawing the outside first, but the projecting points and knobs were always catching in my loose coat, hindering my work, and in some instances the knobs got broken off. Here is an excellent illustration of what I mean by the support of a leaf ; it is a difficult place, where great care is required, especially by a beginner, to avoid breaking off the leaf. It is part of a table easel to support a book j the grain of the wood runs across the pattern, as shown by the lines and the direction of the arrow. It will be seen at once that a slight want of caution would break off the leaf at the narrow neck between the o o. Commence then at the mark H. Cut down the right side in the direction of the dotted line. When you have cleared out the whole of that side return to H, cut down and clear out the left side, leaving to the last the piece of wood be- tween the x x, which is the support of the leaf ; if you should cut this out and the corresponding piece in the oppo- AND WOOD CARVING. 25 site side of the leaf, and then try to finish by cutting out the small pieces at the top of the leaf, it is ten to one that you would break it off. So cut and clear out the support last of all, cutting first down the side of the leaf, and afterwards down the other side in the manner presently to be shown, Now to get the piece out. this place between the x x is also an excellent illustration of the method to be adopted in sawing out narrow places. Cut down along the side of the leaf, from x to o, draw back half way, cut across, and down the opposite side to o, and take the piece out ; you can then turn the work round, and cut out the remainder of the piece. It sometimes happens that the wood on which you are operating has got slightly damp, in this case the sawdust may clog the cut and prevent the pattern from being drawn back ; in this case, as I recommended in my former chapter, loose the saw, and draw it out, don't run the risk of break- ing it. I am supposing you to be using a sawing table (fret- cutting machine), such as I have described, as it is a thousand times preferable to the bow saw and horse, and there is such interest in making it, and satisfaction in using it when made, that I am sure my young friends will try to 26 A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING procure onej and I may here mention for those who can afford it, a very neat, handy, and efficient fret-cutting table can be bought for forty shillings, and less, of Mr. Thick, 1 88, Weedington Road, Kentish Town, London, and that he supplies prepared wood, etc. Now we will suppose that you have got the fret-cutting table, a piece of wood, and some neat, simple pattern pasted on, and are ready to begin. First of all study your pattern, and see where to bore the holes, or saw-gates, as they are called, where will be the most advantageous spot for saving time and trouble. Mark the places with a pencil. This is most necessary for a beginner, especially if the pattern is at all complicated, else you may bore into the pattern as I once did, and so nearly spoiled it. I never even now bore the saw-gates in a complicated pattern without first marking them. When the saw-gates are bored, turn the wood over, and smooth off the chips or rags made by the bit and brace, else they will mark your table, and prevent the work from sliding round smoothly. Before going further I had better give an example of choice of the most advantageous place for a saw-gate. Here is a portion of a three-shelf bracket, a very pretty ornament. You see I have put the saw-gate at equal distances below the two upper interior points. This gives the choice of cutting round to right or left, or the narrow neck upwards. I cut round to the right, crossed over the neck below, from o to x ; cut round again to o, and took the piece out, and then I cut round to the sawgate, as shown by dotted line. If the saw-gate was bored in the middle of the piece to come out, there would be time and labour lost in cutting down to the edge of the pattern, whereas by boring the saw-gate where I have placed it, you are on the pattern at once, and can choose which AND WOOD CARVING. 27 Now way you will cut. learn to saw with long strokes, so as to make use of as much of the saw as possible, trying to give a sharp motion downwards. This is most necessary in sawing a thick piece of wood, it enables you to cut more quickly and easily than if the downward and upward motions were equal. Then learn to use the treadle with both feet, so that one foot can relieve the other, and you may saw without fatigue ; at the same time you must learn to take short, quick strokes, for with these, and at the same time turning the pattern round the saw as a pivot, you can with a new sharp saw cut a small round hole not much larger in diameter than the width of the saw. One final caution I must give : when using a fine and thin saw on wood with a strong fibre you will sometimes find that when sawing outside a curve that runs diagonally across the fibre, the saw will have a tendency to wander off the line in the direction of the soft wood, between the fibre, as shown in the annexed diagram. To counteract this, screw up the saw a little, if you can with safety, and bear more against it with the hand that is ODPO- 3 a8 A MANUAL OF FRE7 CUJ TING site the direction of the wandering, but take care not to press the saw out of the perpendicular, or you may make the work jump, and will not cut true. If this does not answer, make a fresh saw-gate, insert the saw, turn the work round, and cut the other way. When in the course of sawing out the pattern so much is cut out that it becomes difficult to turn the pattern between the saw and the body of the operator, the saw should be taken out and turned, the teeth to the front. The ama- teur must practise sawing either towards or from him. my In last chapter I gave several cautions how to avoid making your work jump. The saw catches it up, and the downward motion if the saw bangs it on the table, if this jumping is not caused by the work being held improperly (the saw being thus pushed out of the perpendicular), or being pushed forward faster than it can be cut, perhaps the saw is worn, and does not sufficiently clear itself ; if so, you had better change it, the jumping may break some delicate part of the work. Your piece of work being fret cut, if you do not intend to carve it, you must set to work to smooth, polish, and varnish it, or, if the wood is white or light- coloured, to stain and varnish it. Suppose you are operating on a piece of walnut with a nice grain, and you do not wish to varnish it, first take off all the remains of the paper AND WOOD CARVING. 29 pattern, and then smooth it with fine sand or glass-paper. Now, the way to do this is not by taking a sheet or half- sheet, folding it, and then rubbing it over your work j this would round off the edges, and give the work a heavy, ill- finished appearance. But if your work is not too large, fasten a sheet of sand or glass-paper down on your table by a few tacks at each end, and rub your work over this, first back and forward, and then with a circular motion ; if your board had been planed before pasting on the pattern, a few minutes of the glass-paper, as just described, will smooth it most completely. Now, take a fine half-round file, and, going over the whole work, obliterate the saw marks inside the cuts, file off the rags left by the saw on the lower edges of the work, and correct the curves or lines that may be defective, and complete their symmetry. Where the work is too large or inconvenient to be sand-papered thus, I my generally use a polishing-stick, a contrivance of own. It is made in this way : Get two pieces of wood ash is the best, but hard deal will do two inches broad, twelve long, threeeighths of an inch thick, planed true on both sides. About a quarter of an inch from the edge of one of these pieces put in four long screws, so that they may project on the other side a quarter of an inch j file them off to sharp points ; the heads of the screws must be flush with the surface of the board, or they mark your work. The first screw should be two inches from the top of the board, the three others at intervals of two and a half inches. Make corresponding holes for these points in the other board ; then place the two boards together, plane the edges true, and round off the Now further end for the handle. open the boards, take & sheet of glass-paper, fix the edge of the paper on the sharp points, put on the other board, bend the paper tight round 30 A MANUAL OF FRET CUTTING the boards, leaving sufficient to go between the boards and over the spikes, like the other end of the paper. Open the boards, put the end in between, and close them. Now, if you have done this neatly, you will have a most capital tool for polishing any flat surface, and you can fasten your work down on your table, and rub it with this. Before putting the sand-paper on the boards, you should go over the paper, and pick out any knots or lumps that may be in it, or they will score your work, give infinite trouble to take out, and perhaps spoil your work. The work being nicely smoothed, if you don't wish to varnish it, apply a small quantity of good linseed oil, leave it a day or two to dry, and then polish it with a hard bristle brush. I use a brown bristle brush that is slightly curved. I once oiled some frames that I made for photographs, let them dry, as I thought, and polished them with the brush. The photo- graphs were put in, and, as the corners only touched the edge of the frame, [